Eric Protas Learns 2-Week Delay in Sex-Molest Sentencing

Eric Dylan Protas of La Mesa will have to wait another two weeks to learn his prison fate.

An El Cajon judge’s illness forced a postponement Thursday in the sentencing of Protas, a karate instructor convicted of carrying on a months-long sexual relationship with one of his teenage male students.

Sentencing was rescheduled to May 11 in East County Superior Court before Judge Peter Deddeh. Protas faces up to 48 years in prison.

Protas, 38, pleaded guilty in February to 29 felony charges, including committing lewd acts on a child.

The victim—now 14—testified in October that he had oral and anal sex about 300 times between August 2009 and May 2010 with Protas, the owner/operator of the Allied Gardens School of Martial Arts on Waring Road.

The boy testified that Protas became his instructor in an after-school martial arts program when he was in kindergarten, and he began taking classes at the studio when he was older.

At one point, when he was having trouble at home and school, he confided in Protas, who made him feel better, the boy said. He said that led to a relationship in which they got together nearly every day.

City News Service contributed to this report.